An unprecedented increase in the price of stamps will put the Royal Mail on
course for privatisation within two years, it was revealed last night.

Royal Mail was given historic freedoms by the regulator yesterday to set the
price of stamps in an attempt to turn around years of losses in its letters
business.

The state-owned postal group said that it would use those new commercial
freedoms to increase the price of a first-class stamp from 46p to 60p, an
increase of 30 per cent, from April 30. The price of a second-class stamp
will go up on the same